[lopaayd]

Asia
Home > Breaking News > Asia > Story
Jan 19, 2010

Reporters' Gmail hacked

BEIJING - INTERNATIONAL journalists in China said that their Google e-mail accounts have been hacked in attacks similar to the ones against human rights activists that the search giant cited as a reason for considering pulling out of the country. In announcing a possible exit from China last week, Google did not specify how the accounts with its Gmail e-mail service were hacked into or by whom. Information since then has trickled out. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China sent an e-mail on Monday to its members warning that reporters in at least two news bureaus in Beijing said their Gmail accounts had been broken into, with their e-mails surreptitiously forwarded to unfamiliar accounts.

Although the warning did not name the organisations, one of the accounts belonged to an Associated Press journalist. Mr John Daniszewski, senior managing editor for international news at the news cooperative in New York, deplored the breach and said the AP will be investigating to determine if any vital information was compromised. The foreign correspondents' club asked its members to be vigilant in protecting their e-mail accounts and computers from attack. 'We remind all members that journalists in China have been particular targets of hacker attacks in the last two years,' the club's message read. 'Please be very careful what you click on, and run virus checks regularly.' -- AP

[lopaayd]

Asia
Home > Breaking News > Asia > Story
Jan 19, 2010

Google hacking an internal job?

BEIJING - GOOGLE is checking whether any of its China staff helped hackers lead a major cyberattack against the US Internet giant, which is now mulling whether to leave the country, a report said on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified sources, said the internal network access of some of Google's 700-odd employees in China had been cut off for the duration of the internal investigation. It was not immediately clear if Google had found evidence to link any of its China-based staff to either the theft of its intellectual property or alleged attempts to access Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents. Google said on Monday it was 'business as usual' in China and its employees were at work, after local media reports that some staff had seen their access to Google's global network cut off and could no longer work.

The company last week announced it was considering abandoning its Chinese search engine, and could shut its China offices, over theft of its intellectual property by hackers, believed to have been based in China. Google says it is no longer willing to bow to Chinese Internet censors by filtering search results on google.cn, but is still seeking talks with Beijing on a solution. The United States has asked for an explanation from Beijing over the Google dispute. China says the row will not affect Sino-US ties, but has also insisted that Google and other foreign Internet firms must obey its laws. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said Monday that expatriate journalists in a 'few' bureaus in Beijing had discovered that their Gmail accounts had been hacked, with messages forwarded to a stranger's account. -- AFP